Uber - good or bad?
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ULL (the Uber company that does the driving in London) were granted a four-month extension to that licence earlier this year. This was because TfL, who are responsible for regulating taxi services in London, had a number of concerns that ULL might not meet the required standards of operational practice. These are rules that all private hire operators – from the smallest local cab firm to Addison Lee – are required to meet. Issuing a four-month extension rather than a five-year one was intended to provide the time necessary to investigate those issues further.

On Friday 22 September, TfL announced that they believe ULL does not meet the required standard in the following areas:

Their approach to reporting serious criminal offences.
Their approach to how medical certificates are obtained.
Their approach to how Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks are obtained.
Their approach to explaining the use of Greyball in London – software that could be used to block regulatory bodies from gaining full access to the app and prevent officials from undertaking regulatory or law enforcement duties.

Mfolf wrote:
Do people get sexually attached... and then contact customer services? Is this a thing?

Apparently it is

The facts are that on the 30 January 2016 a female was sexually assaulted by an Uber driver. From what we can ascertain Uber have spoken to the driver who denied the offence. Uber have continued to employ the driver and have done nothing more. While Uber did not say they would contact the police the victim believed that they would inform the police on her behalf.

On the 10 May 2016 the same driver has committed a second more serious sexual assault against a different passenger Again Uber haven’t said to this victim they would contact the police, but she was, to use her words, ‘strongly under the impression’ that they would.

On the 13 May 2016 Uber have finally acted and dismissed the driver, notifying LTPH [London Taxi and Private Hire] Licensing who have passed the information to the MPS.

The second offence of the two was more serious in its nature. Had Uber notified police after the first offence it would be right to assume that the second would have been prevented. It is also worth noting that once Uber supplied police with the victim’s details both have welcomed us contacting them and have fully assisted with the prosecutions. Both cases were charged as sexual assaults and are at court next week for hearing.

Uber hold a position not to report crime on the basis that it may breach the rights of the passenger. When asked what the position would be in the hypothetical case of a driver who commits a serious sexual assault against a passenger they confirmed that they would dismiss the driver and report to TfL, but not inform the police.

No sympathy for Uber. They had a chance to sort their shit out, they didn't, and then are acting like they're being treated unfairly.

To be fair they're not anymore. The initial reaction was bad but they've since apologised and said they'll work towards addressing all the issues. In turn Kahn has said he'll have an open dialogue to find a solution that works for everyone.

To improve functionality between Uber’s app and the Apple Watch, Apple allowed Uber to use a powerful tool that could record a user’s iPhone screen, even if Uber’s app was only running in the background, security researchers told Gizmodo. After the researchers discovered the tool, Uber said it is no longer in use and will be removed from the app.

Although the entitlement isn’t intended for this, the worry is that Uber—or a hacker who managed to break into Uber’s network—could silently monitor activity on an iPhone user’s screen, harvesting passwords and other personal information. “Essentially it gives you full control over the framebuffer, which contains the colors of each pixel of your screen. So they can potentially draw or record the screen,” explained Luca Todesco, a researcher and iPhone jailbreaker. “It can potentially steal passwords etc.”

Right if your driver takes a wrong turn or misses a turnoff on the motorway for example there is a function which allows you to submit your route for review. It also applies if the final fare differs significantly from the estimate.

I have used it and it's a painless refund process.

Why did the driver have her phone? Why did she give him cash? Seems a bit weird.

Right, so this is nothing about their appeal against the TFL decision, this is a ruling against them asserting their drivers were all self-employed, which IIRC raised it's head as a case before this thread was started.